Suspected College Park shooter said to be quiet, studious

Carrie Wells, The Baltimore Sun

Though much remained unknown about the suspect in the shootings near the University of Maryland's College Park campus, a picture emerged Tuesday of a quiet, studious young man who had completed several high-profile summer internships with NASA.

Dayvon M. Green, 23, a graduate engineering student, had studied industrial and systems engineering at Morgan State University. He was a 2010 and 2011 summer intern at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, close to the College Park campus, according to NASA.

"He was what students aspired to be," Jamol West, a fraternity brother, said of Green, who allegedly killed one of his roommates and wounded another before killing himself. "Very focused on academics, focused on community service. Very well-rounded."

A Morgan spokesman, Clint Coleman, described Green, who was from the Baltimore area, as a "very, very good student." According to the Phi Beta Sigma's Gamma fraternity's website, his GPA was above a 3.5.

In 2010, Green won a $3,000 scholarship through the National Space Grant Foundation and was working on building a central database for NASA.

West, a former Towson University student, said Green helped convince him to join the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity chapter on his own campus, and said the Towson and Morgan State chapters were close. Green was kind, warm and open, West said, usually present at social events even if he was not the center of attention.

"He was a behind-the-scenes person," West said. "That's how he and I bonded."

West said Green was primarily focused on his schoolwork and technology, but also enjoyed football, including the Baltimore Ravens.

Green did not have so much as a traffic ticket until he was cited for drinking in public in November by Prince George's County police, a charge that was dropped earlier this month. University of Maryland officials said Green had not sought mental health treatment through their facilities and the university was unaware of a mental health condition described by police.

Xavier Henry, a University of Maryland Eastern Shore doctoral student who oversaw Green's research during the internship, called him smart, funny and sociable.

"Hearing what happened and some of the details, it just sounds so out of character," Henry said. "We hung out; I took him and some of the other guys fishing sometimes. ... He was a cool guy."

Madhumi Mitra, an associate professor at University of Maryland Eastern Shore, added, "I have never seen any streaks of unusual behavior from him. He worked with a team and everyone was happy with his work."